Improvement in safety-pockets



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

IMPROVEMENT IN SAFETY-POCKETS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 56,248, dated July 10, 1866.

To all whom it may concern..-

Be it known that I, GEORGE A. MITCHELL, of Turner, in the county of Androscoggin, in the State of Maine, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Safety-Pockets; and I do hereby declare that the following,

.taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part oi' this specification, is a description 'of my invention sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

In view of the frequency with which pockets are picked by cutting into them, so that the contents thereof may be abstracted through the opening so made, it becomes an object to so construct a pocket for the use of those whose business requires the presence of cash and valuable papers about their persons that they may feel a certainty of security against such stealing as is accomplished by the cntting operation referred to.

To that end I construct a pocket in the manner shown in the drawings, of which- Figure l is a front view of the pocket detached from the garment in which it is worn or of which it forms a part. Fig. 2 is a side View, and Fig. 3 a cross-section, of the pocket in the saine condition, while Fig. et shows, in longitudinal section, the pocket as located in a garment.

The pocket is made of any suitable llexible material-as, for example, leather, cloth, 85e.- protected by metal, as will be explained hereinafter. The sides or edges and bottom are made in bellows-like folds, to permit expansion and contraction of the pocket to adapt it to the bulk of its contents, and the cover, provided with a suitable lock or catch, is arranged with an elastic connection, by which it accommodates itself to any changes in the thickness of the pocket.

The general flexible or yielding material of which the pocket is made is marked a, and is defended from cutting by strips of metal b, these being sewed, riveted, or otherwise secured to the sides, front, bottom, and top orl cover ot' the pocket, as seen in the drawings.

The back of the pocket is made double, and

between the thicknesses is placed a sheet of metal or a grid or frame-work of metal, and,

where deemed preferable on account of Ilexibility, metallic chains or a net-work of them may be used in place of the metal strips and plate described. Between the thicknesses of material forming the back of the pocket is secured elastic material c, to which the cover is connected. This Inaterial is preferably vulcanized rubber or elastic or shirred goods in which rubber gives the elastic property, though small spiral springs might be employed instead. The point of attachment of this elastic material to the material of the cover d is, as shown, such that when the pocket is extended to its utmost the rear edge ot' the cover shall not be pulled out from between the double 'thicknesses of the back of the pocket, and is also such that when the pocket is emptied the cover shall be drawn back between said thicknesses or layers. The outer layer, at the rear of the pocket, is extended beyond and above the cover, and is also protected by metal, as shown. The. purpose of this extension is to secure or hang the pocket by in the garment.

In Fig. 4, the red-colored material shows parts of the garment to which the pocket is attached by stitching the extension c to the cloth. The cover l folds over the cloth of the garment at the front of the pocket, and a hole is made in the cloth to allow that part of the lock or catch which is lixed to the body cf the pocket to protrude through the garment, so as to permit catching or locking the cover ot' the pocket.

I-Iaviug thus described ymy invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. A pocket made capable ot expansion and contraction by the provision of folds in its sides and bottom, and provided with metallic protectors as defensive armor, constructed and arranged substantially as and for the purpose specitied. l

2. In combination with the above, the yielding cover, constructed and arranged substantially as described.

GEORGE A. MITCHELL.

Witnesses J. B. CROSBY, S. B. KIDDEE. 

